Lopes look to repeat history at WAC Tournament

The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team (18-10, 11-5 WAC) begins its WAC Tournament championship defense Thursday against Seattle U for a noon (Phoenix time) match at the College Park Center in Arlington, Texas.

The Lopes look to re-create the 2023 campaign success when the Phoenix squad came into the tournament as the No. 2 seed and left as the program's first-time WAC Tournament champion.

The team punched its first NCAA Division I tournament ticket by ending top seed Stephen F. Austin's 18-match winning streak with a 3-1 victory. GCU outside hitters Tatum Parrott and Ashley Lifgren, who returned to the Lopes this season, were named to the all-tournament team by each recording double-doubles. Parrott swung for career highs of 30 kills and 32.5 points, in addition to 19 digs. Lifgren contributed 13 kills and 13 digs on the match. Parrott and Lifgren hit .357 and .215, respectively, during the tournament and averaged 6.2 and 2.8 kills per set.

The Lopes will take on No. 7 seed Seattle U (8-18, 6-10 WAC) with the winner advancing to a Friday semifinal to face the victor of the morning match between No. 3 seed Utah Valley and No. 6 seed Southern Utah.

GCU took on Seattle U twice this season with the first opening WAC road play for the Lopes. In that match, Lopes freshman setter Taylor Kubacak dazzled with 44 assists, 17 digs and seven kills. GCU won that match 3-1. The second match came at home on Senior Day in the second-to-last home match of the season. Parrott, a junior, swung for 17 kills on a .536 hitting clip to help lead the Lopes' 3-0 victory.

Seattle U enters the WAC Tournament on a two-match win streak. The Redhawks defeated Utah Tech 3-0 on Thursday and Tarleton State 3-1 on Saturday. Seattle U senior outside hitter Arianna Bilby is averaging 3.86 kills per set over he most recent wins.

On the other side of the bracket, the third match of the day will consist of No. 4 seed Utah Tech taking on the three-match win streak of No. 5 seed California Baptist. Tournament host and No. 1 seed UT Arlington will face No. 8 seed Abilene Christian to close the first day of action.

Each of the tournament matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ with a separate stream on WACinternational.tv for international viewers only.

The tournament is single-elimination with the semifinal matches taking place at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. (Phoenix times) on Friday. The championship match will occur Saturday at 5 p.m. (Phoenix time) with an NCAA automatic qualifier spot on the line.

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Players Mentioned

Taylor Kubacak

Ashley Lifgren

Tatum Parrott

Grand Canyon University Athletics